Here’s the poster in it’s final interpretation. It’s a wee bit sparse, but I’ll always advocate whitespace if it’s an option. I did several more renders but it started getting far too crowded and so they were axed in the end. It relies heavily on a grid and follows it surprisingly close, even on the oblique lines that don’t seem like they should match any given structure. The final print was 24 x 36 inches and I learned that In Source gives students 50% off which brings the final cost to a price similar to what Staples charges normally. Live and learn, I got the discount, so no worse off really; I’ll just remember to never print there after I graduate.

I’ve been carving out a wood model ever since I realized just how pitifully weak blue foam is at pen thicknesses. I mean, no one commends it’s strength but it seems exponentially weak as mere millimeters are shaved off. The wood is much slower going and my thumb is starting to burn from sanding but ultimately it’ll provide a much more stable representation which is always worth extra effort. Don’t be lazy, do it right.

I apologize for my lack of posting; it’s been really quiet both in my life and in the blogosphere. Everyone’s out enjoying spring, I suppose, I know I am. First day riding the longboard to school! The roads are garbage with gravel everywhere, but the middle is fairly decent. It’s nice to be back riding again.

Still working on the ol’ CMYK pen project as seen above and added knurling to the grip a la my favorite architectural pencils. School is winding down and this is among the last of the projects to be completed so things are wrapping up for the year. I miss grade school in a way; summer was so exciting. You’d sit in your desk and couldn’t wait for the bell to ring so you could go and play, and people were giddy knowing the big break was coming up.

In related news, I watched the entire season one of Community and quite liked it. It makes college seem a lot more racially diverse and adventurous than it really is, but I like the overall idea.

Some sample renders for the first revision process that we’re doing in class right now. If you didn’t see the first sketches it would probably explain more about the project. Essentially, the sliders (which are now radial and not linear down the pen) control the flow of the CMYK tanks to form the final colour which is used as ink so you could draw or write in virtually any colour you can imagine -simply dial it in with the CMYK sliders.

Just the basics for now.

I disagree with the class’ approach to design process: figuring out aesthetics before you go about practical process? I understand that we have to be open minded, and of course I am, but you could come up with the most beautiful idea and it would be an utterly pointless exercise if it isn’t physically possible. It’s simply poor to try and slot reality in afterwards. Form follows function. Although design involves art, design is not art. If you want to make things with a specific art style be a sculptor. Fashion ruins design. Good design is long lasting (-Massimo Vignelli) and fashion is never long lasting.

So, I might not show my practical process right now (because apparently that’s a bad thing…?) but it’s in my mind from step one. It has to work. Working is beautiful. The form of a working item is beautiful. Everything extraneous is fashion and bad design.

We’re working on a project in class making a pen for a specific demographic. I chose the artsy character designer profile we made up, and so far the design involves some sort of black-box mechanism for mixing CMYK ink (controlled by sliders) so you can draw in any colour. Other ideas include Wacom pen / capacitive touch screen stylus (iPad etc) integration. It’s a lot to fit in a small package, so I might have to leave those. You can’t have it all, I suppose. Well, the stylus would just be the pen nib without any ink, but the Wacom part requires actual electronics inside which might be a tight fit.

Anyway, sketch page 01, the very first and very roughest of drafts.

That claw-hand is kind of creepy. Maybe it’s designed for witch ergonomics as well?

Since everyone around kept commenting about the show Mad Men and it happened to be on Netflix I decided to give it a try. It’s pretty boring, I have to say, so I spend most of my time skipping around to the furniture in his office and drooling.

I feel bad for neglecting you readers, so I’m trying to post things as I’m working on them to assure you that I am in fact preparing for the last few weeks of school diligently.

The above is a basic illustration that I just made to demonstrate three positions of a mechanical iris such as the one in the shutter of a camera. I’m using four small ones inside the CMYK pen to control ink flow; the rotating sliders will be directly geared to the iris in such a way so that 100% open and 100% closed will line up with the slider’s inner and outer limits, providing a very direct and tactile control.

Ultimately, I’ve always loved mechanical irises (irisi?) and if you ever get a chance to play with old film lenses (they have the manual exposure tab sticking out) I highly recommend looking at the mechanism inside – it’s mesmerizing.